SCIENCE 



Friday, September 27, 1912 

 contents 



The Photochemistry of the Future ; Professoe 



GlACOMO ClAMICIAN 385 



The First International Eugenics Congress: 

 Professor Kaymond Pearl 395 



Industrial Education in the Philippines .... 396 



Graduates from American Colleges and Uni- 

 versities 397 



The Sarpswell Laboratory 397 



Scientific Notes and News 398 



University and Educational News 400 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



The Policy of the Geological Survey: Dr. 

 Geo. Otis Smith. School Grades — to What 

 Type of Distribution shall they conform? 

 Vs. A. P. Weiss 401 



Scientific Books: — 



Colman on Nature's Harmonic Unity: Peo- 

 EESSOB Arnold Emch. Case's Bevision of 

 the Amphibia and Pisces of the Permian of 

 North America: Dr. Maurice G. Mehl. . . . 407 



Notes on Infectious Abortion in Cattle: Dr. 

 Frank M. Surface 409 



Special Articles: — 



The Effects of Alkaloids on the Develop- 

 ment of Fish (Fundulus) Embryos: Dr. J. 

 F. McClendon. On the Eelationship be- 

 tween the Bilateral Asymmetry of the Uni- 

 locular Fruit and the Weight of the Seed 

 which it produces: Db. J. Arthur Harris. 

 Heat Conductivity of Crystals: Dr. R. W. 

 Clark. Some Curious Cases of Selective 

 Reflection in Ultra-violet Light: Gustave 

 MiCHAUD 412 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-oa- 

 Hudson, K. Y. 



THE PHOTOCHEMISTRY OF THE FUTURE'' 

 Modern civilization is the daughter of 

 coal, for this offers to mankind the solar 

 energy in its most concentrated form ; that 

 is, in a form in which it has been accumu- 

 lated in a long series of centuries. Mod- 

 ern man uses it with increasing eagerness 

 and thoughtless prodigality for the con- 

 quest of the world and, like the mythical 

 gold of the Rhine, coal is to-day the great- 

 est source of energy and wealth. 



The earth still holds enormous quantities 

 of it, but coal is not inexhaustible. The 

 problem of the future begins to interest us, 

 and a proof of this may be seen in the fact 

 that the subject was treated last year almost 

 at the same time by Sir William Ramsay 

 before the British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science at Portsmouth and 

 by Professor Carl Bngler before the Ver- 

 sammlung deutseher Naturforscher und 

 Aerzte at Karlsruhe. According to the 

 calculations of Professor Engler Europe 

 possesses to-day about 700 billion tons of 

 coal and America about as much; to this 

 must be added the coal of the unknown 

 parts of Asia. The supply is enormous but, 

 with increasing consumption, the mining 

 of coal becomes more expensive on account 

 of the greater depth to which it is necessary 

 to go. It must therefore be remembered 

 that in some regions the deposits o'f coal 

 may become practically useless long before 

 their exhaustion. 



Is fossil solar energy the only one that 

 may be used in modem life and civiliza- 

 tion? That is the question. 



' General lecture before the International Con- 

 gress of Applied Chemistry, New York, September 

 11, 1912. 



